Linux Mint 19 Released

The Linux Mint team has announced the release of Linux Mint 19, codenamed Tara. Linux Mint 19 comes in three flavors -- Cinnamon, Mate, and XFCE. Linux Mint 19 is based on the Ubuntu LTS 18.04 release, which is supported until 2023.

Linux Mint gained popularity during the early days of Gnome 3 and the Unity desktop. Linux Mint created the Cinnamon desktop, which offered the good old WIMP (Windows, icons, mouse & pointer), as compared to touch-friendly, future proof Gnome 3 and Unity.

One of the highlights of Linux Mint 19 is Timeshift, a name and feature borrowed from Apple’s Time Machine that enables users to create a backup of the system and restore the system if something goes wrong.

To make life easier for users, Linux Mint 19 simplifies the update manager. “The Update Manager no longer promotes vigilance and selective updates. It relies on Timeshift to guarantee the stability of your system and suggests to apply all available updates,” said the official blog post.

The Linux Mint team has offered an update mechanism, so users running Linux Mint 18 can upgrade to Linux Mint 19.

Linux Mint has not been free of controversies. The team edits Firefox to remove Google as the default search engine and replace it with Yahoo!

This month’s DVD lets you test the latest release from the popular Linux Mint project. Linux Mint 13 “Maya” is based on Ubuntu 12.04 “Precise Pangolin” and thus is compatible with the Ubuntu repositories.